“My People and Your People”

“Then the LORD said to Moses …”

Exodus 9:13 (NIV)

Reading this, I long to hear the LORD as clearly as Moses did. God tells Moses what He is doing, and through Moses His word is proclaimed to Pharaoh—indeed, to the world. How I wish I could begin today’s writing, “The LORD said to me…”. I long for the day when, with that same assurance, I may carry His will to people and declare what He intends to do.

In today’s text the word people keeps appearing—clearly divided into
“my people” and “your people.”

“… Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”
“… I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people…”
“You still set yourself against my people …”

Exodus 9:13, 14, 17 (NIV)

On one side are Pharaoh’s people—backed by royal power and wealth.
On the other side are God’s people—slaves in Egypt.

By human standards,
Pharaoh’s people should be better off.
Yet they sink into greater distress, while God’s people are kept under His protection.

At first glance, God may look partial—unfair even. He distinguishes between Egypt and Goshen, between your people and my people.

“Hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.”
“The only place it did not hail was the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were.”

Exodus 9:24, 26 (NIV)

Pharaoh, who seems strongest on earth, cannot shield his people from hail and fire. But God takes responsibility for His own. He guards; He keeps.

“Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their slaves and their livestock inside.”

Exodus 9:20 (NIV)

Even Pharaoh’s officials begin to see it: the LORD is stronger than Pharaoh. They start to heed His word. If Egyptians hear and respond, how much more should God’s people listen and serve.

“This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”

Exodus 9:13 (NIV)

Today is Sunday.
As God’s people, we worship the Lord.
I still cannot make it to Seoul; for now I worship online. One day, I hope to gather in person with the church in Seoul.

Thinking it over,
the God who remembered slaves, protected them, and led them into the wilderness so they might worship Him—that story mirrors my own situation.

Sunday dawn, March 29, 2020.

I visited my parents one last time.
And over several days, I finished writing the last letters for the investors, for my parents, and for close friends.

I told my parents I was going back to Seoul to work, but in truth I had nowhere to go. With the money I had left, I found a cheap place nearby. When I entered the room, I noticed a sturdy metal hook fixed in the wall a little above my height.

I had completed all preparations to leave this world.

In the pre-dawn hours, when I had finished every preparation, I turned on a Christian broadcast, praying that—even if I ended my life in sin—God would still receive my soul.

At the very last moment of prayer, a sermon by the late Rev. Yong-jo Ha came on. He had been with the Lord for more than ten years, yet in that message he said:
“The spirit that drives a person to suicide is from the enemy.”

I do not know why that particular sermon mentioned suicide, or why I heard it at that exact moment. But I did. And for the first time in a long while I contacted Pastor Kwak in Seoul.

My chat log records the time exactly—6:11 a.m.
“Pastor… I’m struggling badly. I’m reaching out.”
That very day, with his help, I went up to Seoul.

A month later, on April 24, 2020, a church minister bought me lunch and suggested we start sharing daily devotional (QT). So on April 25, 2020, I began writing devotionals. That day’s passage was in Deuteronomy.

I didn’t preserve those early entries well and lost about half. But in what remains, I wrote this:

Devotional on Deuteronomy 9:22–29
When God said He would destroy Israel, Moses fasted and prayed for forty days. Looking at a people who kept rebelling—at Taberah, Massah, Kibroth Hattaavah, and Kadesh Barnea—he could well have said, “I’m done. I can’t do this anymore.” Yet Moses did not give up on them; he prayed to God for this people.

In Deuteronomy 9:14 (NIV), God had promised that even if He destroyed Israel,
“Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven.
And I will make you into a nation stronger and more numerous than they.”
In truth, Moses would not have suffered loss; it might even have seemed advantageous to him. Yet he kept pleading that God would save this Israel who constantly caused trouble. For forty days he neither ate nor drank, staking his very life on prayer.

What did Moses learn in those forty years in the wilderness? He wasn’t earning degrees or building a résumé. Out there—where he could do nothing by human means—what was it that formed Moses…?

A year has passed since I wrote that devotional.
I now know a little—what Moses learned over forty years in the wilderness.

I still don’t fully understand.
But the fact that someone as ordinary as I am is still alive—that is grace.
Being strengthened day by day through daily devotions in Scripture—not by worldly methods—and being trained to read God’s Word and obey—this too is great grace.

Sharing daily devotions with the now-ordained pastor has been a gift from the Lord. When my devotions drift, she gently corrects me, waits patiently, and helps me keep at this practice. Training in Scripture devotional is a privilege God has given me. Yesterday she was ordained; today she preached her first sermon as a pastor. Every part of her message resonated deeply with me.

God saved me from death,
granted me a season of solitary wilderness, and speak to me there—this is God’s grace.

From Death to Life Prayer

You make a distinction between “my people” and “your people.”
You call the weak to be Your own people.
You give life to those who were bound to die as slaves to sin, and You teach us to hear Your Word and obey.

When this wilderness is past,
may I stand boldly before the Pharaohs of this world, be a channel to declare what You have said, and live as one of Your people who do Your will.

May the God who worked in Moses’s day
and is alive and working today
bring this to pass.

Amen.